“Climate Colonialism”: a new term that is here to stay. During the climate negotiations in Copenhagen last December, some developing nations claim that the draft agreement would allow people in developed countries to emit twice as much carbon per head than those in poorer countries, who have not caused the rise in emissions. Angelika Navarro, Bolivian Ambassador to the UN “  “We think that 20 per cent of the population have created a crisis for humanity. They have a historic responsibility for more than two thirds of emissions and more than 90 per cent of the increase in temperature. We think there is a climate debt they owe to all humanity and to Mother Earth.”

Is the term here to stay? Most certainly, at least in history.

Have developing nations any chance of succeeding in their demands? No one is stopping them as long as they self-finance their development, which for the poorest nations is almost impossible as they depend too much on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which channel funds for investments.

The Clean Development Mechanism fails short of offering a country like Bolivia who emits 1.2 tons of CO2 per capita (compared to US’ 19.1) and has seen its glaciers receding dramatically, a source of investment for developing clean infrastructure (to our knowledge, only 2 projects have been funded through CDM: hydropower and reforestation projects).

Finally, if a country like Bolivia can eventually survive and even adapt to global temperature rising by 2 degrees, it is not the case of many African nations that will face rising temperature of 3.5 degrees causing droughts, famines, flash floods and millions of climate refugees. Island nations will simply disappear, and coral reefs will become extinct by 2025 causing a cataclysm in the food chain.